The Russellville City Council again voted to re-establish a city property tax for police and fire pension funds, this time making its recommendation to Pope County Clerk Don Johnson.

After the Pope County Quorum Court last week declined the city's request to reset 0.4 mills for the city's police pension fund and 0.4 mills for the city's fire pension fund, the city council voted 5-1 during a special meeting Tuesday to ask Johnson to re-establish that tax. Johnson is now apparently the governing authority responsible for setting the millage, according to city officials.

Quorum court members set Russellville's municipal millage rate at zero last week, mirroring what Russellville voters decided Nov. 30 when they voted to eliminate all property taxes collected for municipal purposes. That repeal by voters involved a resolution previously passed by the city council seeking to establish two mills for employee raises and continue the 0.8 mills for police and fire pensions.

Russellville aldermen voted 5-3 last week to re-establish just the 0.8 mills for police and fire pensions, determining voters did not intend to repeal the property tax for retired police and firefighters when they rejected the entire property tax, merely the more controversial two mills for employee raises. The quorum court, however, opined that Russellville's resolution was not constitutional because it was not approved by two-thirds of the aldermen.

After nearly an hour of discussion Tuesday, the five aldermen present voted 4-1 to ask Johnson to reset the 0.8 mills even though the quorum court would not. Mayor Raye Turner cast the fifth vote in order for it to pass by a majority, which was still one vote short of the two-thirds majority quorum court members said was required. There are eight members of the city council.

Russellville City Attorney Trey Smith referred aldermen to a 1958 Arkansas Supreme Court decision that said the quorum court "does not have the power to change millages voted by city councils ... This duty is purely clerical and the county clerk is required to extend taxes on the basis of the millages voted by city councils and school districts without references to levies made by the quorum court on the city and school district millages."

Quorum court members, however, were following an Arkansas Constitution provision that states, "No measure approved by a vote of the people shall be amended or repealed by ... any city council, except upon a yea and nay vote on roll call of two-thirds of all the members ... of the city council."

Smith said the city's remedies included sending a second request to county leaders or pursuing legal action against the county. Council members backed off the latter, instead voting to write Johnson a letter. Turner also said she planned on seeking an Attorney General's opinion regarding the county's interpretation of the law.

Pension members speak

Meeting 90 minutes before the special city council meeting Tuesday, eight members of the police and fire pension boards said they would like the property tax re-established for their retirement funds, which have been in place and collecting city property tax dollars for more than four decades.

Members said their collection has not been controversial during that time, and their tax funds are merely a casualty of the city council's attempt to raise property taxes for reasons not acceptable by city residents.

"We got caught in a dog fight," said Hack Horton, a retired, 33-year Russellville Fire Department veteran who began working for the department in 1952. "The police and fire pension funds have got caught up between the city and the county."

Horton said the city should ask the county to reconsider its position.

"We would hate to see the city take legal actions over a confusion in the law," he added.

Roger Freeman, the only county quorum court member in attendance, said the ballot posed to city voters on Nov. 30 included the 0.8-mill tax for the pension voters and was still rejected by city voters.

"The ballot specifically set that out, and the citizens voted clearly," Freeman told the council.

He said it was too late for quorum court members to reconsider their action, based on state regulations.

Turner said voters did not intend to do away with the police and fire pension funds. She also said media accounts did not clarify the issue enough before the vote.

"If the people feel like we're overriding them, they can carry the referendum again," she said.

City residents circulated a petition to repeal the property tax established by the city council, receiving enough signatures to have the Nov. 30 vote. The vote overcame a legal challenge by Russellville firefighters who claimed those citizens fraudulently obtained the signatures.

Paul Gray, the only present alderman to vote against Tuesday's new resolution, agreed that the voters clearly decided to repeal all city property taxes when they voted Nov. 30.

"I thought the people were very, very clear," Gray said. "I'm sorry [pension members] got dragged into this, but the people spoke. If the council wants to fix this next year, I think it can easily be done."

Aldermen Faye Abernathy, Ronnie Tripp and Cliff Kirchner joined Turner in supporting it, as did Alderman Andrea Lea, who last week opposed re-establishing the property tax for police and fire pension. Lea was the only council member who attended the earlier meeting Tuesday, at times engaging in lively discussions with pension board members while inquiring into specifics of their fund management.